54 New Approaches to Old Fossil Collections

Material collected during the early history of paleontology conserves deep time ecosystems and remains available for study. We invite presentations of new analyses and interpretations of well-studied collections in the context of the broader history of the discipline.

Sunday, 19 October 2025
1:30 PM - 5:30 PM
HBGCC, 303AB

The “Lost” Lozo Specimens: A Review of Type Material from Frank E. Lozo Jr.’s 1944 Publication on Albian Foraminifera from North-Central Texas

Paper number: 54-4
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 2:20 PM – 2:35 PM

Authors

Abstract

Frank E. Lozo Jr.’s 1944 article “Biostratigraphic Relations of Some North Texas Trinity and Fredericksburg (Comanchean) Foraminifera,” published in The American Midland Naturalist (vol. 31, no. 3), records the distribution of foraminifera in lower to upper Albian strata in North-Central Texas. The lithostratigraphy of the Albian strata in North-Central Texas includes (in ascending order): the Trinity Group, Fredericksburg Group, and part of the Washita Group. For his study, Lozo sampled the Glen Rose Formation of the Trinity Group (lower Albian), the Walnut and Goodland formations of the Fredericksburg Group (middle to upper Albian), and the Kiamichi and Duck Creek formations of the lower part of the Washita Group (upper Albian). Lozo identified and described thirty-nine species of foraminifera, including nine new species. The published article indicated all illustrated specimens would be sent to the Cushman Laboratory for Foraminiferal Research in Massachusetts, which was later transferred to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. However, the material was never submitted to a repository and the location of the specimens remained unknown. The “lost” type specimens and other picked foraminifera from the sampling localities in the publication were recently found in a storage room in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Texas at Arlington. Discovery of Lozo’s research material allows taxonomic reevaluation of the foraminiferal assemblage published by Lozo. A preliminary analysis of his type specimens and other foraminifera present in the collection indicates that several specimens require reassessment, including taxa belonging to the benthic agglutinated and calcareous genera Ammobaculites, Flabellammina, Laevidentalina, Lenticulina, Marginulina, Massilina, Psilocitharella, and Pyramidulina. The only planktonic foraminifera recorded by Lozo from the studied interval are Globigerina (=Muricohedbergella) planispira and Globigerina (=Favusella) washitensis. Specimens described by Lozo as Globigerina planispira are now considered to belong to various species of the planktonic genera Liunella, Microhedbergella, Muricohedbergella, and Ticinella.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 57, No. 6

doi: 10.1130/abs/2025AM-414552

© Copyright 2025 The Geological Society of America (GSA), all rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted to the author(s) of this abstract to reproduce and distribute it freely, for noncommercial purposes. Permission is hereby granted to any individual scientist to download a single copy of this electronic file and reproduce up to 20 paper copies for noncommercial purposes advancing science and education, including classroom use, providing all reproductions include the complete content shown here, including the author information. All other forms of reproduction and/or transmittal are prohibited without written permission from GSA Copyright Permissions.